Bringing back "Skyway" priced dirt cheap season tickets for supporters and end zone seats may be more helpful than individual tickets in getting people in the door. I'd suggest they do it with the west side 300 deck, but my guess is the Fire would want to prioritize filling the 100 level lower bowl and 200 level club seats first for an optics and atmosphere sake.
^^ this. if you want to grow the fanbase, i think you need to get people to see the game, the team, the experience. $10 cheap seats and then, after attendance grows, people WANT to go to the games, you raise the prices (as per usual), and people will want to pay them because they love the team. unfortunately, there is a mindset of "those prices are minor league and we are in the mls" so, i fear it may not happen and you'll have to pay $25 for nosebleeds. Not a great deal for a family of four.
I was thinking about that, as well. The $99 season ticket package in the Skyway in 2010 or so is what convinced me to move my seats up there, and I have been there ever since. Yep
From where I stand: Moving into the city? Yes, awesome. Moving into NSF (hopefully temporarily but who the ******** knows)? Choosing to do it in the stupidest way possible. Rebranding? Stupidest way possible. I think these moves are just continued evidence of ownership clawing for any excuse for why they're at where they're at that isn't them. It's a failing proposition. The problem is ownership. Full stop.
By all accounts, we have a pretty good squad of players. Even with a not-so-great coach (ie, still better than ours), they should be fairly decent. If there is no desire from the top to want to win, the players can sense that, and that extra 1% of effort they can easily put in is not pulled from because they have no reason to do so. I believe this is why we have what we have right now as far as a record. This line-up with a slightly above average ownership group, in my opinion, would have a much better record than what they have. A winning culture comes from the top down.
It is unquestionably true that the Fire, and MLS generally, seeks to butter its bread among silver spoon privileged 90's kids that are turning their city environments into Rosemont one neighborhood at a time. But quite how any other populations were being served by a soccer club in the middle of nowhere that they weren't interested in and that wasn't interested in them is beyond me. Maybe at Soldier Field the team can drum up support from points south on the Red Line. In Bridgeview the raccoons were the only hope of any diversity.
It will never happen, but there is plenty of land off the Orange Line and they could really embrace the Latino population on the SW side.
There's a decent chunk of industrial warehouse land that could probably be had for the right price off the Halsted Orange Line across the river in Pilsen, and it's one site I'd suggested in another thread, though how long that area actually stays Latino is anyone's guess. Rents in Pilsen are 2x what I remember seeing when I was looking for an apartment near UIC back in 2011.
as nice as it would be to move to a sss without going to soldier field first, as far as the newscycle goes, it is better to move to sf first because the news will actually report it- soldier field being a newsworthy buzz word- and, in the same vein, people that may not pay attention to the fire might hear, "soldier field" and say, "i know where that is." whereas the opposite is true now, where people (still) hear "bridgeview" and think "where the heck is that?" bridgeview, i believe, was a pretty unknown city in the area, unlike the auroras, napervilles, joliets, schaumburgs, and evanstons where chicagoland people at least had a vague idea of what direction is was in when they heard it. bridgeview COULD have become one of those cities if the team was viable and the area was built up around the stadium, as i believe was the plan originally. if that happened, we might not be having this conversation.
I wouldn't hold my breath there. The Lincoln Park NIMBY lobbying will just go straight for Lightfoot even in the unlikely event that Hopkins could be overruled. Plus, I'm not sure how the new directive on this would work in practice. Ward offices still have considerable power it seems (see LaSpata's killing the redevelopment of that school in Humboldt Park yesterday).
Also, the Lincoln Yards spot was not a Fire project. Of course, it could be since the other deal is failing.
But that family of four, that buys the $10 tickets, will then buy the $5 hot dogs, the $4 pretzel, the $11 beer, the $8 nachos, the $6 sodas, the $20 parking. And, if the team is entertaining, winning, and has a major ethnic star, a couple of customized jerseys for whatever ridiculous price. And if the kids have fun watching the Fire thrash opponents (looking at you DCU and LAG, and, to a lesser degree, Dall-ass) they'll nag the parents to go to the next home game. But, you gotta win. For me, getting to Bridgeview is simple. And I know I will be able to park in the lot. Going to NSF, requires an earlier departure time, with no guaranteed parking spot in any of those lots (depending on attendance) and the CPD is just as bad as the BPD in directing traffic. So precious tailgating time could be impacted.
Oh, come on. You think there will be enough people to fill the garage at Soldier Field? "Take that shit to the Optimism Thread" [emoji6]
I don't think I parked in the garage at New Soldier Field more than two or three times from 2003-2005. I always found better places to park or I would walk from my office.
We are at Cirque du Soleil in the Soldier Field south parking lot. We were super early so took a walk on the relatively new paths. It is so much better than it was around here. If the Fire do move here, I am all for it. Night games are 10 minutes from my Loop office by cab or Redline. Weekends, we can put the bikes in the car, park in my garage at my office, ride from there along the magnificent lake front and make a day of it.
Elements of it will be awesome. Football lines, long grass and poor sight lines hurt the game. Tailgaiting will probably wither away unfortunately.